


The Social Duties of Cpt. Thos. Ryan, 95th Light Division

by rain_sleet_snow



Series: The Trials and Tribulations of Cpt. Thos. Ryan, 95th Light Division [3]
Category: Frederica - Georgette Heyer, Primeval
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 02:29:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3232877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Miss Frederica Merriville, managing female extraordinaire, renders assistance to Captain Thomas Ryan, a childhood friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Social Duties of Cpt. Thos. Ryan, 95th Light Division

**Author's Note:**

> Originally based on the primeval100 prompt Best Night Ever, but it went bonkers. Once you let Frederica in, removing her is more than difficult, and she had a lot to say. This should be easily understandable without any knowledge of Heyer’s works, although I do recommend Frederica and it will be difficult to understand if you haven’t read From the Journal of Cpt. Thos. Ryan, 95th Light Division. All you need to know is that Ryan, having been wounded in the Battle of Waterloo, spent a formative few months recuperating at his best friend Jonathan Lyle’s London home – where the neighbours included the Lester family, their cousin Miss Abigail Maitland, and their governess Miss Claudia Brown. Fredbassett and x_bellaitalia_x looked it over for me.

            Ryan had gloomily expected that his grandmother would demand his chaperonage at the occasional local assembly, and that he would attract a certain amount of attention. It was just as bad as he had thought it would be, especially because so many of the children he had known growing up were now staid country squires and respectable matrons, and held him in a worrying amount of awe. Miss Charis Merriville – a young lady whose startling beauty was equalled only by her startling lack of gumption; Ryan found himself quite spoiled for such company by the intelligent Miss Brown - was in attendance, which meant that Ryan was at least not besieged by the younger generation. Despite this, Mrs Hartford’s ball wasn’t lacking in irritations: Ryan had heard enough armchair strategy and overblown praise of the Duke to last him a lifetime, his face was aching from the small polite smile pasted onto it, and Miss Brown was either not here yet, or not planning to appear. He was consequently not overwhelmed when his hostess led Miss Merriville to him, performed a wholly unnecessary introduction, and recommended Miss Merriville to him as a dance partner.

 

            Well, at least Frederica could be relied on not to fuss over him. She was quite six years younger than him, but he had known her from the cradle, and flightiness had never been one of her faults.

 

            “I am persuaded you don’t wish to dance, Tom,” Frederica observed, as he led her onto the floor.

 

            “Certainly not, but imagine what my grandmother will say if I don’t,” Ryan retorted, taking comfort in her matter-of-fact tone and the happy chance that he could still remember the steps to this waltz.

 

            Frederica laughed. “Your grandmother has always terrified me.”

 

            “Nonsense. You are her favourite, and well you know it.” It was perfectly true. Grandmamma did favour Frederica Merriville very strongly, and spoilt her youngest brother – a more guileless Nicky Lester in temperament, and just as disastrous – shamefully. For some considerable time, Ryan had endured his grandmother’s hints that himself and Frederica should make a match of it, and had even considered it seriously at one point, but he could not imagine Frederica giving up the charge of her numerous younger siblings to their legal guardian, and she did not seem to have any marked interest in marriage.

 

            “A position of the utmost responsibility, I assure you,” Frederica said, but Ryan’s eye was caught by a flicker of a glimpse behind her – a young woman of medium height in a blue gown, a little low-cut at the front with delicate silver braid at the waist and neckline, her soft auburn hair put up simply and adorned with a silver Spanish mantilla comb, her smile very familiar as she greeted her hostess.

 

            To her credit, Frederica barely even winced when Ryan trod on her foot. “You are exceedingly clumsy tonight, Tom.”

 

            Ryan apologised, embarrassed, but Frederica merely glanced over her shoulder. When she turned back, she wore a knowing smile, and Ryan privately cursed her habit of omnipotence. “Miss Brown is charming. Mrs Edwards-Ffolliot simply will _not_ stop talking about her wonderful cousin, which I find tedious, but Miss Brown does not disappoint. Do you know her?”

 

            “A little,” Ryan admitted. “We were neighbours, briefly; she is the governess to the young family who live next to my friend’s house, and I had some involvement with them when I stayed there.”

 

            “Hmm.”

 

            Frederica was worryingly quiet for a moment – a circumstance that usually meant she was scheming for others’ benefit – so it was with gratitude that Ryan led her off the dance floor and towards the refreshments at the end of the dance. Frederica accepted some negus, and Ryan took a cup at random and rapidly discovered that it contained orgeat, which he hated with a passion.

 

            “Miss Brown,” Frederica said contemplatively, “is new to the neighbourhood.”  


            Cautiously, Ryan assented.

 

            “It would be a kindness in you,” Frederica pursued, “to introduce me to her. We must be of an age, and I always welcome new acquaintances, particularly when they are dear to old friends.”

 

            “Nothing would please me more,” Ryan said, unspeakably relieved.

 

            “You should then,” Frederica continued, “after allowing us a space in which to become acquainted, and in which I might introduce Charis and Harry, ask Miss Brown to dance. If, that is, you were feeling truly chivalrous. Officers of the 95th are famed for their chivalry, or so I am told.”

 

            Ryan, thoroughly outmanoeuvred, struggled for words, and also to prevent his jaw from dropping floorwards, which enterprise occupied him in silence for some moments.

 

            “Tom. Have I overstepped the line?”

 

            Ryan glanced into Frederica’s grey eyes, now unwontedly serious. “No,” he said after a moment. “Truly, no. It is only that...”

 

            “You had not expected me to realise?” Frederica shook her head sympathetically. “Oh, Tom, I thought you knew better. I am rather more than seven, you know.”

 

            “To my cost,” Ryan said feelingly, and tactfully lost his cup of orgeat behind a floral arrangement. “Miss Frederica Merriville, you are a terror, and if you have finished your negus, I should like to introduce you to Miss Brown.”

 

            Frederica mislaid her negus behind the same verdant work of art, and Ryan offered her his arm. “Captain Thomas Ryan, I resent that accusation, but a friend of yours is a friend of mine. Lead me to her.”


End file.
